I really don’t know anymore….

[ty_taurus]

When people are using it to form the crux of, or major bolstering to, their arguments, yes.

The reason why other people don't get called out on their use of hyperbole is because those people aren't also complaining about and calling others out on hyperbole. If someone has a bad faith take, most here just call out the bad take. They're not fixated on how that was delivered, but you seem to get fixated on the fact that it is hyperbole regardless of the take. And that's the difference.

Hyperbole is a tool--a literary device that is neither good nor bad. You described cases in which it can be unhealthy, and that's true, but it can be used in other ways as well. I first commented on your use of the term "stratospheric" because that would fall under the category you described of "falsely bolstering" your statement by over exaggerating the stances I and others who feel similarly as I do have taken to make your perspective sound better or to paint ours in a more negative light. Sebazy's comment on your use of "pretty much no one" is more just a bitter jab at the fact that it is hyperbole from someone who complains about hyperbole, but the actual comment on its own is fine. It's either true enough that we understand what you're saying, or it's misinformed.

And that leads me to whatever your argument has been about with Sebazy. Note that I haven't called her out, but I haven't called you out either in regards to the argument you two are having. That's because I'm not paying attention. I'm just responding to your comments directed at me. I'm really not interested in reading through everything in detail to try and play the referee, but I very lightly skimmed over the details. Sounds like you started out talking about the general player perception of SCH/SCH, Sebazy pivoted into a point about the strength of the comp and the advantages it offered for the coils, and you're trying to counter argue some of those points I guess.

On the actual point of the topic, Sebazy knows what she's talking about far more than you or I do when it comes to raiding and what raiding was like then. Not being a raider doesn't mean you don't know anything, but you do not have anywhere near the level of first hand experience on raiding that she has. Maybe, just maybe, she understands the raiding side of it more than you do. And I'm in the same boat for the record. My raiding experience back then was very limited. Sure, from the common player's perspective, SCH/WHM sounds like the right move, and the two naturally did compliment the others weaknesses. It just so happened that SCH was deceptively far better than most of us really understood, especially back then.

It actually reminds me a lot of competitive Pokemon. Because the current format for competitive Pokemon uses Scarlet and Violet, the most recent games. But old formats from past generations are still played competitively today. There's a YouTube channel called False Swipe Gaming that's put out very well researched videos on the competitive history of different Pokemon, and there are times where he discovers Pokemon that have gotten added to a past generation's Meta years after that generation ended because the modern competitive players have found out new strategies that no one thought to deploy back when the generation was current. And I imagine that if each expansion were achieved and playable for FFXIV, we would probably have done the same: learning about new strengths that we didn't realize were there at the time of that expansion. SCH/SCH being discovered as actually stronger or perhaps specifically stronger for certain fights, or whatever the case may be, is something the general playerbase would eventually have discovered rather than just the raiding community.

On the flip side, the whole "thumbing himself" comments are really nasty and uncalled for. I get why Sebazy feels annoyed. She feels that someone who has a fraction of her raiding experience and knowledge is trying to educate her on how raiding actually was, but there's a better way of going about it.